A rep for the network says, 'We have suspended pre-production for a moment to deal with budget issues, but the project is still intact at HBO with the entire creative team as before.'
- September 20, 2014
AceShowbiz -
HBO has suspended pre-production on a Joe Paterno movie, "Happy Valley", which will reunite "Scarface" director Brian De Palma and actor Al Pacino. Deadline learnt that casting sessions on the project had been cancelled and other prep work had been put on hold, but the premium cable channel says that the project is not scrapped.
A representative for the network says in a statement, "We have not killed the project, so to say so inaccurate. We have suspended pre-production for a moment to deal with budget issues, but the project is still intact at HBO with the entire creative team as before." Sources further tell the site that the suspension will be used for additional script work.
"Happy Valley" is set to chronicle the fall of Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, who was fired after it was revealed that his former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was molesting children and Paterno was aware of it but concealed it. He died in January 2012 of complications from lung cancer, only two months after his firing.
Paterno was the winningest NCAA football coach with 409 total collegiate wins, before NCAA eliminated 111 of the games Paterno had coached and won as part of punishment to Penn State for the child sex abuse scandal, dropping from first to 12th on the list of winningest NCAA football coaches.
